Employers added 187,000 jobs in August, showing strong but slower growth

Employers added 187,000 jobs in August, signaling that the market has returned to pre-pandemic levels of job gains after months of cooling, though it remains in a remarkably healthy place.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as some workers were laid off and thousands more joined the labor force for the first time.v

The August jobs report caps 32 months of gains, scoring a political victory for President Biden, who has endeavored to build a pro-worker administration as he gears up for his reelection campaign. Still, after months of substantial cooling, the solid job creation combined with rising wages and higher rates of participation in the labor market in August rounds out a booming summer that has been defying expectations, as consumers spend liberally.

“The labor market is back to its normal pre-pandemic climate,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “The question going forward is whether this will be the sustainable long-term condition of the labor market or whether we will cross below the pre-pandemic level to something slower and cooler.”